In this episode, I'm gonna show you how podcasting changes what happens before a patient or client ever meets you. Hi, I'm Toby Goodman from Tobygoodman.com. Before someone arrives to see you, they're rarely starting fresh. They've picked things up from somewhere.
A search, a conversation, something they've read.
Bits of it might be right, some of it won't be. So when your ideal patient or client sits down with you, you're often going over the same old ground, clarifying what's relevant, straightening out what doesn't apply, explaining how you actually work.
If someone has very little context, you bring them up to speed. If they've picked up the wrong context, you spend time unpicking it. Either way, it takes a while before you get to what actually matters for them.
But what if those essential parts were already clear before they arrived? Your podcast can do that. Before they get in touch, they already understand how you approach a situation like theirs. What tends to matter, what the risks and trade-offs look like, and what decisions are likely to involve.
This isn't so much about what they feel about you, it's about what they already understand before they sit down with you. One of the world's leading marketing experts, Seth Godin, has a phrase,
"People like us do things like this."
When someone is trying to make sense of a situation, they look for something that feels relevant to them.
Now, compare doing that to a random article online about a procedure. It might be accurate, but it doesn't help someone understand how that applies to them or how you would approach it.
So if that's in place when they meet you, the conversation's totally different because you're not starting with the basics, you're starting with their situation and their questions change, they become more specific to them, more grounded in what is actually going on for them in that moment.
And as one of my favorite teachers once said, "The art lies in the details."
So instead of explaining the process, you're helping them decide what to do next and you're really listening to them and responding to them. Just imagine the time that saves in the sales cycle. You're spending less time covering old ground and more time working on what matters.
So your podcast becomes your support system and it works for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can explain what usually happens in a first consultation in a way that prepares someone without rushing them. You can literally use your podcast as a line of defense before you even accept an appointment.
"Oh have you listened to to the episode about how we work with our clients?"
"Check this link out."
You can talk through how to think about a procedure so it lands properly. You can give someone enough context to involve a partner or a family member in the decision, and they can even share that episode with that person, so there's less lag and waiting time to make a decision.
And because it's audio, you can control how that explanation is delivered. By the way, this also helps your team because when a patient or client arrives having already listened, your receptionist, coordinator, a nurse, another clinician, they're not starting from the beginning either. They're continuing a conversation that's already been set up properly by you.
And the whole experience starts from a much better place. The patient or client understands what's likely to happen, your team is aligned on how things are explained, and the consultation can focus, as I said, on what actually matters.
And your consultation can focus on the finer details. Look, nothing replaces in- person conversations. But when someone arrives better prepared, you can use that time far more effectively.
In the next episode, we'll look at how this influences referrals and how a podcast can help others in your network explain your work when you're not in the room.
